


Raising Ino

by Kiterie



Category: Naruto
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-04
Updated: 2011-12-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 01:11:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/668549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiterie/pseuds/Kiterie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The trials of raising a little girl are numerous and never easy, but for Inoichi they are even harder and more numerous. The elders and Inoichi don't see eye to eye on Ino as the clan heir. Canon style AU's mother is dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flower Shop

**Author's Note:**

> Chisaki - the name I chose for Ino's mother - means 'A thousand blossoms' and I thought it was rather apt given the flower shop. Also I took the basic idea of this from a one sentence fic I wrote and always wanted to expand on.

Inoichi loved having a daughter. She was beautiful from the first moment that he laid eyes on her and that would never change. From that day forward she was _his_ little princess.

When she cried it made him want to smile at how her little nose wrinkled and her big blue eyes shone when bright with tears. At the same time it broke his heart to see his precious, little girl upset. It didn't matter what the cause was, it was the hardest thing in the world for him to face and she was _not_ above using that fact against him. It took more will power to resist her teary-eyed pleas than it took to resist enemy interrogation methods or practically any other form of torture he knew of.

When she smiled or laughed it filled him with joy. The sound was like music, and it didn't matter what he had seen, heard, or done all day. No matter how bad his mood was when he got home and she wrapped her arms around him and told him animatedly of all the things that she'd learned from Suzume-sensei about flowers it brightened his day.

It was those two things that decided him, of course.

It wasn't because he needed time away from T&I. He did, but not because he was feeling the strain like he claimed. He said that to keep Ibiki from laughing at him and somehow that was less embarrassing than admitting the real reason.

The time away was necessary because as hard as it was sometimes to remember, when Ino understood the root of her mother's name- when Suzume told her that Chisaki meant 'a thousand blossoms'- it struck him that she had _nothing_ to remember.

He re-opened the shop for _her_. Because she pleaded with him, begged him, and gave him 'the eyes' with her lower lip sticking out for added emphasis. Because seeing her heartbroken whenever she looked at her mother's picture, a mother who'd never had the chance to be there for her, broke _his_ heart. Because Ino needed her mother and he couldn't give her that.

The flower shop was his gift to Ino. It was his way to give her a tie to her mother; a constant happy reminder that her mother was always around her. Whenever he walked in now, he could feel Chisaki's arms around him, and he knew that while it might have started as his gift to Ino, in a way it had turned out to be Ino's gift to him too.


	2. Daddy

It should have been his wife who had to explain but she wasn't here and so it was left to him. It still seemed highly unfair and he wondered if there was any way out of it, but he knew there wasn't. So, with an exasperated sigh, he grabbed his daughter's arm and pulled her back from where she was staring intently at the young Uchiha boy. 

There were a lot of days Inoichi wished that his wife was still alive. Whenever he'd had to change a dirty diaper or crawl out of bed every few hours to give her a bottle it was there on his sleep-deprived mind.

His daughter shared his high cheek bones, his eyes, and really most of his features. She was her daddy's girl and they both knew it. He loved her more than anything else, which was what made the current situation so hard.

If there was one thing Ino got from her mother it was her stubbornness and right then... he really, _really_ wished Chisaki was there. She'd likely have knocked her daughter upside her head, though not literally, for what the six year old had just attempted to do.

Tugging Ino towards the back of the flower shop, Inochi sighed again. "Ino-chan, you _can't_ use the clan techniques on your friends."

Ino furrowed her brow and planted two little fists on her hips. "It's not like I'm trying to read his mind. I _just_ want to kiss him!"

He bit down on the smile tugging at his lips. She was cute and so much like her mother when she did that. Inoichi knew he was the world's biggest push over when it came to his little girl and his dead wife. Ibiki had told him as much and also added that it was a wonder that Inoichi was the head of his clan and _his_ partner within T &I. It worked when they played good interrogator, bad interrogator so Inoichi really didn't think Ibiki should complain. Besides, Ibiki just _didn't_ understand. Ino was _adorable_.

It took everything he had, but he reined in the desire to smile. It was important that she learn not to do things like that and he knew it.

Clearing his throat, Inoichi shook his head. "It's wrong to make the people you care about do things just because you can."

"But, you do it," Ino huffed. "You make me clean my room _all_ the time!"

He couldn't help it, he laughed. "That's different. I'm not forcing you to, I mean I am, but I'm not using a jutsu to force you to. Besides, that's for your own good."

Ino cocked her head to the side and let out an exasperated breath. "So is making him kiss me."

"What?"

"Well, Daddy," she huffed. "If he kisses me he'll _have_ to fall in love with me. 'Cause you said yourself I'm a princess, and when the prince kisses the princess, he _always_ falls in love with her," She explained.

"Ah..." Inoichi rubbed his temple. "Just trust Daddy, I've tried it and it _never_ goes well. Not _ever_. When they figure out what you did they won't be your friend anymore or worse they'll get revenge in their own way." Her mother was the vengeful type. Every time he'd ever tried to get her to do anything and used his abilities she got him back ten fold.

Ino crossed her arms and pursed her lips, clearly considering it. After a long moment she sighed. "Fiiiine, I won't use clan jutsu on my friends."

"Good girl, now go clean your room," he laughed, gently pushing her in that direction.

"Daddy!"

"Go." He _really_ needed to learn to be more firm with her and he really wished his wife was there so he didn't have to be.


	3. Heir

Some of the elders had doubted him.

They had tried more than once over the years to _encourage_ him to start dating again. They had pushed their daughters and grand-daughters at him in the hope he would show interest.

He didn't.

It wasn't out of spite towards them. Inoichi understood their position and even their reasoning. He didn't agree with it, but he understood it. His lack of interest was, however, exactly that. There was simply no woman that would ever come close to replacing his dead wife. 

Inoichi worried at times that Ino's priorities weren't always as they should be. It bothered him that she let outward appearances weigh so heavily in her opinions of those around her. He didn't approve of the way she mooned over the Uchiha boy or that she'd let it come between her and Sakura-chan's friendship. Inoichi understood that she had to grow up and that she had both strengths _and_ weaknesses. He was her father, he knew how frustrating, willful, and _young_ she was.

Despite her faults and the things he wished that he could change he never once wished that she was a boy or that he had another child. She was his and he loved her, but more importantly he _believed_ in her.

The elders could doubt all that they wanted. They would never see Ino as anything more than the things she wanted them to see.

Ino would never let them see _her_ , not willingly.

Perhaps it was for the best, but it was a shame because it meant that they missed all of the most wonderful parts that made her so incredibly beautiful. They didn't get to see the tears fall from her eyes when Chouji was released from the hospital after the first time he pushed himself too hard. They missed pride that radiated from her when Shikamaru was promoted to chuunin or when she had swept into the flower shop full of fierce joy, the day that she and Chouji received their own chuunin vests. It was their own fault that they didn't know that how fiercely she fought with Sakura had everything to do with how much she loved her one-time best friend. If the elders didn't recognize that her greatest strength _wasn't_ her bloodline talents, but her refusal to give up; there was nothing that Inoichi could do to change that.

Inoichi never said anything to the elders when they made suggestions that he remarry and have more children. He never bothered to explain to them that as head of T&I he knew that they always hoped he would have a boy so that they could name him the heir. It was pointless to try to reason with them when most of them were nearly as stubborn as his late wife, though not even _half_ as stubborn as his teenage daughter. Eventually he hoped that they would see that she was a beautiful flower with roots deeper and broader than any tree.

The war was coming and she and the younger generation would prove themselves, he had no doubt of that. He hoped that the elders were all around to see it when she did. Inoichi wanted them to see that a girl was just as strong and capable as a boy. It was important to him that they see that Ino, while still too young to lead the clan, would someday. When she did, they would be surprised at how she surpassed _all_ of them, like the rest of her generation was prone to doing.


End file.
